Princesses are cool, but technology sucks

[secondlina]

I went to see the Princess and the Frog. Here is my (mostly spoiler free, hence no cut) review:

It was good. Really good. It had the classic Golden Age Disney feels while still having a little magical originality. Which may have been caused by the fact that the prince had personality. He was actually the main sidekick. No prince ever got to be a sidekick before! And he's funny too!

The female characters are very strong and Tiana reminds me of Mulan (and no, it's not because they are both ethnic - it's the character itself). The songs are beautiful, of course, but none of them really hit me as "Amazing!" The animation is extraordinary and the ending has a nice few twists. All and all, a good Disney movie, sure to become a classic and to create a ton of merchandise. I found that it explored metamorphosis and acceptance much better then the animated feature "The Swan Princess" which is not a Disney film, but has a lot of themes in common with the Princess and the Frog.

People who see the Princess and the Frog obviously have access to the internet and on said internet you can find two major complaints. One: Permanent character death. I'm not gonna say who, but yeah, a few people kick it in the movie, which apparently shocked audiences who are used to only villains dying in Disney movies. I found it was a nice touch and added to the message of the film. It wasn't senseless, children-traumatizing killings. I was very amused by a parent's lament on a forum saying that she never wanted her child exposed to (and I quote) : "An obvious display of christian values by killing a character and giving him a funeral!" I'm not really sure which is associated to christian values, the death or the funeral, but i'm fairly sure this comment reminded me that forums are bad, bad places for brain cell development.

The second internet wank over the Princess and the frog is, obviously, the fact that most of the cast is black/ethnic. Ethnic groups complaint that the ethnic portrayal is all wrong and white people are complaining that the white cast is full of asswipes. OKay, we get two villains in this movie, one is white and the other black. And the two other main white characters, Mister "Big Daddy" Lebouff and his hyperactive, Glinda-lookalike daughter Charlotte, are the sweetest sidekicks i've ever seen. Disney wasn't trying to do a racial film, I know, but having a blond, spoiled rich kid, in the 1920's, be Best Friends Forever with a black girl really came off to me as beautiful and sweet. The friendship between Charlotte and Tiana did not drive the film, but it added this little layer of self-sacrifice and it was darn cute. It deserves a drawing.

Behold:



The ethnic portrayals seemed very good to me. Everything flowed and felt natural. Then again, i'm white, so I might not notice something extremely offensive to another ethnic group. But in general, the movie focused on the characters and created an atmosphere that did not focus on their backgrounds while still reminding us that it's the 1920's and that life can be hard for someone like Tiana. Which only makes her happy ending seem better. Besides, be they white, black, chinese or native american, all Disney heroins had social problems. People are making a big Deal out of Tiana's because of america's mixed past with black people. But generally, this seems pretty standard, respect and development wise. Good job Disney!

** In an unrelated note, my PC computer fully died. I now rely on my macbook and link's computer. And I work techsupport all day. And do extra website building contracts by night. And my internet still sucks. God I'm starting to hate technology.

-Isa

Comments

[rose.livejournal.com]

No, I agree. I'm Catholic, but whenever I referred to myself as Christian growing up the "true Christians" would correct me. So, thus began the habit of differentiating that has continued throughout the years and been further ingrained by Sociology classes. I might be going out on a limb here, but I bet the forum woman was assuming they were all Baptist just because it was down South.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

I get it too, being LDS, but people forget that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is Christian, so those "true Christians" can...well, maybe go educate themselves. But yeah, I'd be wondering just what the woman was thinking when she thought she was being subjected to a religious funeral.